Tag: Fans

My senior English teacher asked me that during a seminar-style class period where we had to discuss the topic of “relationships”. I went to an all-boys high school, and as expected, the seminar conversations were ripe with machismo and testosterone, especially initially. Despite that obvious roadblock though, my English teacher was able to navigate through our initial thoughts and tendencies and actually produce appropriate and worthwhile conversation amongst 20+ 18-year-old boys, ready to graduate and go to college. That 60-minute class could have easily turned into a “measuring” contest (i.e. who was the best at attracting the opposite sex) or a “venting” session (i.e. people bashing their exes). Instead, it turned into mature, thoughtful dialogue about relationships as a whole, why we seek them, and how we change or are shaped from relationships in our lives, even if they do not last for long. My conversations with my classmates from that particular day still ring in my memory, though I feel sheepish reveling the exact topics from my classmates that day, especially considering this is a Kansas City Royals and Fantasy Baseball blog.

But one bit I will share is the one above. I asked my English teacher, “I know why a relationship fails, and why we didn’t work. But I always go after the same kind of person. Why do I do that?”

And that’s when he dropped it on me: “Well…Do you consider yourself a masochist?”

I don’t think I had an answer then. I really don’t have an answer now. 13 years later since that class, I still wonder if I am actually a masochist when it comes to relationships, seeking ones that are doomed to fail out of some perverse subconscious enjoyment. I will say I am in a good relationship now, the best I’ve ever been, so maybe I’m not actually a masochist, but someone who needed more time to find the right person.

So what does this have to do with Royals baseball?

Well, I brought up that quote and that story because I got to thinking… is it possible that you have to be a bit masochistic to not only be a Kansas City Royals fan but a baseball fan in general?

Baseball is an odd game in comparison to other sports. There are no set time limits. The game from pitch to pitch moves slowly. The season runs a 162 games long, an insane amount of contests when you compare it to other major American sports. The game is mired in number, statistics, and analysis to the point where one almost has to have a love of math to enjoy the game nowadays. Opportunities vary for players on the field. In some games, the hits come in bunches, and a player is making play after play. In some games, he goes o-fer and doesn’t touch the baseball.

And opportunities for teams? It may be even worse. Only five teams from each division make the playoffs, only 33% (less than the nearly half per division as it is in the NBA), and two of those teams from each division have to play in a “one-game playoff” just to advance to the next round, where it is only a five-game series. In the NBA playoffs, each round consists of seven games, usually resulting in the best overall team winning each round (with some exceptions every now and then of course). But in baseball, there are only two seven-game series’: the Championship Series (Pennant) and the World Series. Often times, it’s not the best regular season team that wins the World Series…it’s just the best team in October. That can be infuriating for a fan who watched his team be successful over 162 games, only to see that success erased in as little as 1 to 3 games.

Some say that the baseball season is akin to “running a marathon, not a sprint”. I agree, but with some conditions: It is like running a marathon, but you have to carry cinder blocks on your shoulders while doing it.

And for the Royals and their fans this season, it’s been like running a marathon with cinder blocks that have 100-pound steel weights attached to them. In other words, this season has been an awful, painful, dragging slog to get through.

As you can see from above, one can understand where I’m coming from when I say that it may be “masochistic” to be a Kansas City Royals fan. And there are still 60 games left to go this year.

How the hell am I, or any Royals fan for that matter, going to get through it all?

It would be easy and understandable to throw in the towel on the Royals this season. And for the most part, a lot of people already have. Why follow a team that’s going nowhere this season? Why not spend time, money, and attention on other sports teams, activities, hobbies? If the Royals cause this much frustration, why stick with it, like a bad relationship doomed for failure?

I’m not saying you have to be masochistic to enjoy the Royals. As a matter of fact, I think there’s a lot to still enjoy with the Royals, even during this season.

I just don’t want Royals fans to grow pessimistic and jaded.

It’s amazing how easy it is to fall into those categories as a Royals fan. It’s easy to bash on Moore and blame him for all the Royals problems. It’s easy to bash manager Ned Yost and his lineup and bullpen decisions. It’s easy to bash the players and talk about how much they suck, or that they should be jettisoned from the sport immediately. It’s easy to bash on baseball and say the game is dying and that nobody cares about it anymore, especially in comparison to basketball and football.

But while it’s easy to do those things (and get into the habit of Randy Marsh finger pointing), it’s important to try to avoid it as much as possible (I get it…venting is needed from time to time). Instead, it’s important to remember the joy of 2014 and 2015. The positivity. The playoff games. The excitement. Blue adorning the city everywhere you traveled within the KC Metro. Those were good times. Good times for baseball fans. Good times for the Royals and Kansas City, overall. The parade at Union Station still is one of my best memories as a sports fan, period.

It’s important to remember because it helps give fans hope that it can happen again. Just look at the difference between 2014 and 2015. Once the Royals got to the playoffs a second time, it seemed to be destiny that they were going to win it all. The Royals and the fans knew what it took to win, and they weren’t going to let it slip away a second time, as they proved by beating the New York Mets in the World Series in 2015.

So it’s important to hold on to hope. It’s important to not tune out on the Royals for the rest of 2018. And here are fivethings to remember that will help you get through the remaining 60 games of what some may say is a “lost season”

1. Remember…2015 was only three seasons ago

Some may look at that statement and say “And look how bad we are after winning the World Series three years ago!” I get that, but you have to keep things in context, especially in comparison with other MLB teams. The Cleveland Indians have not won a World Series since 1948, good for the longest World Series draught currently. The Brewers, Padres, Nationals, and Mariners, have never won a World Series in their club’s history (49 years for Milwaukee, San Diego, and Washington; 41 for Seattle). The Royals, on the other hand, have two World Series titles: 1985 and 2015.

Yes, it sucks that the Royals are not competitive, and are in the process of rebuilding. It sucks that the Royals may not experience that playoff magic for at least a few more seasons. But compared to other clubs in baseball, at least we have those recent memories of success to comfort us in these down times.

3. Remember that there’s still some talent on the roster for the future.

Though he had a rough start Wednesday, Danny Duffy is finally turning it around as a starter this season in the Royals rotation. Whit Merrifield consistently proves to be one of the Royal’s strongest overall players, a great story considering he was overlooked for so long while toiling in the minors. Adalberto Mondesi is finally getting an opportunity to play every day, and he is finally developing into the infield mainstay many envisioned him to be when he first broke into the Majors as a 19-year-old. The roster has some players who can not only play this year, but could provide a nice foundation for the future for this Royals club as well. Yes, the farm system isn’t deep, and there are a lot of players on this roster that probably won’t be around when Spring Training hits next year. But the cupboard isn’t bare, and there are some players on this roster worth investing in as a fan for next season and beyond.

4. Remember that even though there are struggles, the veterans aren’t mailing it in.

It would be easy to see Mike Moustakas, Salvador Perez, Alex Gordon, and even to an extent Alcides Escobar, just throw in the towel on the season. After all, they were the main cogs during those 2014-2015 runs, and the roster around them is a far cry from those glory days. They could be out in the media, demanding trades, wanting to be on a winning team, hoping to snag one last ring in their prime. Instead, they have come to the ballpark and played hard as professionals. Even watching the game in person Wednesday, the veterans I listed above approached the game as if it were 2015, and they were in line for a playoff spot, not the first overall pick in the 2019 draft. That kind of professionalism and effort is not something we see all the time in baseball, and even Royals fans can attest to that. I mean, did you remember the 2005 Royals coming to the park every day like this squad here? And doing so even though all those veterans I listed above have gone through down seasons in 2018?

Yes, maybe they’re not doing well. Maybe a couple of them should’ve left a year or two ago. But they bring it each and every game, and that at the very least deserves some respect in the grand scheme of things.

5. Remember…going to Kauffman Stadium is fun.

I talked about my experience at Kauffman Stadium in my last post. Going to a game at Kauffman is a great time. It doesn’t matter if you’re with a bunch of friends, tailgating a couple of hours before a game or going solo with a scorecard. There’s something about the stadium and the ballpark experience that make a day or night at the K special. It’s easy to forget that with all the losing going on. But don’t. Go to a game. Go to a game with friends. Go to a game by yourself. But just go. The specials are starting to happen in even greater frequency now, and tickets will only get cheaper as we head into August.

So don’t just settle for watching a game on television. Don’t settle for just listening to it on the radio on the way back to work as you’re stuck on I-35 traffic. Don’t just settle for following it on your MLB At-Bat app. Go to the K. Get a ticket. Sit in the cheap seats. Watch the Royals hit the field and hear the crack of the bat and the snap of the catcher’s mitt and the roars of the crowd.

A day at the ballpark in person captures you in ways that other mediums simply can’t.

2018 will be a season that will either live in infamy (as the worst Royals team of all time) or will quickly be forgotten in Royals lore. I’m betting more on the latter. After all, nobody talks about the 2005 team (the current worst team in Royals history) with the exception of Royals fans comparing it to this year’s team. After 2018, people will only talk about the squad that season, future teams, or the 2015 team that won it all, and that will be a good thing. Think about Milwaukee. What years are they talking about other than the current season or the ones in the future? What years can they talk about when they had a parade in the heart of their city?

I’m not trying to sugar coat this Royals season or excuse this year’s poor performance by any means. It’s been a lousy year, plain and simple. There are players in this organization that need to go and management needs to make some changes in the organization (scouting, development or even the front office) if the club ever wants to be competitive again. 2018 has been a slap to the face of Royals fans this year. 2015 showed how all-in this city could be with the Royals and baseball. They deserved a better team than a bunch of band-aid free agent signings and short-sighted trades that ended up hindering the club for years to come.

But despite all that frustration…keep following the Royals. Keep going to Kauffman Stadium. Keep the faith in this club for the future. Don’t give up or ignore them for Chiefs football just yet.

Because that commitment will pay off. When the Royals turn it around…whenever that is…it will make the experience that much sweeter.

In late June, as a regular Fangraphs reader, I stumbled across the Hardball Time’s Fan Experience Index, which rated the fan experience of every team in Major League baseball. The ratings didn’t show the Royals in the most positive light, as Kansas City ranked 27th overall in fan experience, according to THT’s ratings. I wasn’t necessarily sure how I felt about this at first: I didn’t grow up in Kansas City, so a lot of my fandom comes from a more recent lens. However, here’s a list of the ballparks I have been and seen games at over my lifetime:

Kauffman Stadium (Kansas City Royals, obviously)

AT&T Park (San Francisco Giants)

Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (Oakland A’s)

Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles Dodgers)

Petco Park (San Diego Padres)

Coors Field (Colorado Rockies)

The Kingdome (Seattle Mariners, pre-Safeco Field)

Busch Stadium (St. Louis Cardinals)

I have visited the grounds of Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs) and Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox), but never actually seen a game there, so I didn’t list them. While the amount of parks isn’t numerous, some of the parks I have listed were highly ranked in Asa Beal and Michael Wentworth’s rankings (San Francisco, Colorado, Los Angeles and San Diego ranked 1, 4, 5, and 6, respectively). And to be honest, while a lot of those parks were great, I didn’t necessarily feel that their fan experiences were 20+ spots better than Kauffman Stadium and the Royals.

So, I decided to make a two-part series post where I respond to the supposed “fan experience index”. In this first post, I am going to look at the rankings directly, and either confirm or refute their ratings based on my own experience as a Royal fan. Since I follow the Royals regularly, as well as go to games, I feel I have a pretty good accurate view of what the Royals fan experience is like, and whether or not Beal and Wentworth are spot on, or are letting their “West Coast” and “bigger city” biases get the best of them (which they admit in the article that they’re based in the West Coast).

In part two, I am actually going to recap an experience of a game at Kauffman Stadium on July 25th against the Tigers (a day game). This will be “actual” experience, and based on this recent visit, not only can I examine Beal and Wentworth’s claims of Kauffman even further, but also examine my own, and see where I was on, and where I may have let my own biases as a Royals fan come through.

So, let’s begin part 1 of this “Royals Fan Experience” analysis by directly responding to the late June article posted on the Hardball Times.

THT’s Fan Experience Index Criteria

I really admire what Beal and Wentworth are trying to do with this “fan experience index”. In reality, only one team can win the World Series, so while winning is important, winning is not the only reason fans come to the ballpark. There are a variety of factors and reasons that sway a baseball fan into deciding to pay for a ticket and come to a game in person instead of just watching it on their couch or laptop (because nobody likes to pay for cable these days). Thus, Beal and Wentworth come up with nine criteria that in their words ” judge the experience of being a baseball fan outside of your team’s World Series chances in a given year.”

Ownership (18 percent) — is ownership committed to creating a positive on-field product while also maintaining an atmosphere in which a wide variety of fans feel welcome?

Game Day Experience (18 percent) — how enjoyable is seeing your team in person?

Ballpark and Broadcast Accessibility (15 percent) — how easy is it to get to games? To hear a broadcast in your native language? To feel welcome at the stadium? To access insider information?

Broadcast (15 percent) — how good are the TV and radio broadcasts of games?

Spring training facilities (9 percent) — how is the experience of seeing your boys in spring?

Laundry (5 percent) — how stylish are their jerseys and hats?

Social Media (1 percent) — do the franchise’s social media and marketing team add any fun?

Mascot (1 percent) — because why not?

I think those criteria are pretty fair, though I’m sure you could argue the weights they give to each individual category. Some may say affordability should be worth more, while others may argue that Spring training facilities should be less, if not inconsequential. Nonetheless, in this post, I will share Beal and Wentworth’s ratings, and whether I think the Royals rating from them should be higher or lower and why. All their ratings are on a 1-10 scale, with 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest. And thus, their aggregate rating (an average of all the criteria) is a number out of 10.

Affordability: 6. My rating: higher, but barely.

THT rated their affordability as a 6 out of 10, which I can understand if you’re not in the Kansas City area. If you simply buy tickets off the Royals website, the deals aren’t great, and it probably does merit a 6 rating, maybe lower. The cheapest seats at face value are around 11 dollars, which for a team that is near the cellar of Major League Baseball, seems like a steep price to pay.

That being said, the Royals are the master of specials, and also not “enforcing” the specials. What do I mean? I can buy student night tickets for “student” prices (which are $5, which I did for the Tigers game tomorrow) without having to actually prove I’m a student (i.e. not use a student email, id, etc.). It’s a loophole, but I think the Royals don’t go too hard in enforcing it because they need to get rid of tickets, especially this season where they aren’t quite the “hot item” they were from 2013-2017 (Now if you try to buy it at the box office, that’s a different story, as you will have to show ID). Also, you can find deals aplenty out there on StubHub or other coupons, as I was gifted a “season discount” package where I could get 4 free games (albeit with a $3.50 service charge per ticket) and 8 1/2 price tickets. And scalper prices are pretty reasonable as well, as you can get tickets in the $5-10 range in the parking lot the day of.

In terms of concessions, parking etc., I will probably go into more details about those items in my second post. That being said, I never found the prices too egregious when it came to concessions or parking (it’s $15 day of but you can get it cheaper if you buy it online), and again, much like tickets, there are plenty of days where there are concession sales. Fridays are dollar nights, where certain items like hot dogs and peanuts are only a buck each, which is something I know AT&T would never dream of doing.

If I had to rank the affordability of Kauffman (pregame of course; this is subject to change), I would probably rate it a 7. It’s gotten more expensive as the Royals have gotten better, but they don’t sell out every game, which means you can get cheap or fairly price tickets the day of. Hell, you can even get a good selection of tickets from the box office the day of a game, which is something that would be difficult to do at AT&T or Dodger Stadium. I think that counts for something, and I think there will be even more deals and affordable ticket deals in the second half as the season winds down.

Ownership: 4. My rating: lower.

4 is pretty low, but I still think David Glass merits a lower rating. The guy was on the cusp of making the Royals the premier professional sports organization in Kansas City. He has the advantage of playing during the best season in the Midwest (the Summer, where everyone in the Midwest wants to do shit outside because they know what winters are like), and other than Sporting KC, they actually have a championship title to boast (unlike their NFL neighbors the Chiefs). And yet, not only did he and management fail to capitalize on this run, but they also have made things more expensive, a drag considering the Chiefs are already such an expensive product in the Fall and Winter months.

I appreciate that Glass didn’t go full Jeffrey Loria and totally blow it up after their run. That being said, he definitely could have done more to maintain the competitiveness of this squad so they wouldn’t have bottomed out three seasons after their first World Series title in 20 years. Another key aspect of this rating is also how the organization maintains an “environment in which a variety of fans feel welcome.” I struggle a bit with this one, as it is similar to the Chiefs, in terms of they cater to the traditional White, middle-class family in the KC Metro area. You don’t see a whole lot of cultural nights, or even a whole lot of diversity in fans to be frank (my friends made note of this once when watching the Royals game, remarking “You know, if everyone just judged KC based on Kauffman alone, they would think we were the whitest city in America”). Now, I will say that I think the Royals do a much better job in this regard than the Chiefs: they don’t have the racist props; they really embrace Kansas City’s Negro League roots, especially when it comes to Buck O’Neill; and they do a great job with the KC Urban Academy. But compared to other ballparks and other organizations? Glass and the Royals still have a long ways to go. I give them a 3.

Gameday Experience: 7. Accessibility: 3. My ratings: TBD

I’m going to go into these ones more in-depth in tomorrow’s posts. I feel a fresh experience in response to these categories would be more relevant anyways.

Broadcasters: 5. My rating: higher.

The Royals television team consists of Ryan Lefebvre and Rex Hudler in the booth, with Jeff Montgomery and Joel Goldberg as pre and post-game hosts (Montgomery does fill in on occasion in the booth). The radio team consists of Denny Matthews, Steve Physioc, and Steve Stewart. I tend to listen to more radio than television, as I do not have cable, I subscribe to the At-Bat radio (it’s not blackouts and only $20 for the year), and I like to do a lot of things while following games (the life of a teacher, I guess).

I enjoy the radio broadcasts for the most part. Matthews is a vet who has been with the Royals since the organization started in 1969. Matthews reminds me a bit of Jon Miller for the Giants, though he doesn’t have the pizazz for big moments like Miller. But I respect Matthews for his balanced, unbiased, and no-nonsense approach to the game, which makes the Royals games enjoyable to follow on the radio. Believe me, if you listen to some of those Yankees broadcasts on WFAN, it will make you sick how “homer” they are. Physioc and Stewart have their moments on the show, but Matthews is really the star of Royals Radio broadcasts.

As for TV, I have grown to like them more year by year. Lefebvre is fine, but it’s the combo of him Hudler that really make the broadcasts worthwhile. Lefebvre plays a great straight man to Hudler, who will go on tangents and have a lot of “catchphrases” that already have become the stuff of legend amongst Royals fans today. I know Hudler had a tough time initially, as he is a relative Royal outsider, and many people, especially the older generation, felt he was just off his rocker. Thankfully, Kansas City has warmed up, especially 35 and under fans, who seem to appreciate his goofy style more so than old-school Royals fans. Tonight, KC showed their appreciation for the duo with a special T-shirt night for fans, as evidenced in the tweet below:

Overall, I would rate the Royals broadcast team a 7. I don’t think they’re elite (there are a lot of better broadcasts teams out there; as much as I hate the Dodgers, they’ve had some of the best), but they’re definitely better than the middle of the road grade they were given by THT.

Spring Training: 10. My rating: lower, barely.

I have only been to Surprise once. I was in high school on Spring Break playing in a baseball tournament of my own and from what I remembered, it was a nice ballpark and a fun experience (Ruben Gotay hit a game-winning home run, and we heckled the hell out of the Padres’ Robert Fick). Plus, it is in Arizona, which is infinitely better than the humidity of Florida Spring Training spots. That being said, I remembered it being a pain in the ass to get too (I remembered we got lost going there and went to the wrong stadium by accident initially; this was pre-GPS days and there are a ton of MLB facilities around the Surprise area). Furthermore, it was a nice ballpark experience, as nice as a good Triple-A park, but nothing noteworthy. So, I would probably give it a 9.

Maybe the Royals Spring Training facility in Surprise is my trip for Spring Break in 2019?

Laundry: 7. My rating: higher.

I love the Royals uniforms. I like the hats and the uniforms, and that they don’t try to do too much. I get that their look resembles the Dodgers, but people only say that because they both have blue and white. The Cardinals and Reds both have red and white, but you don’t see people complain or complain about it, right?

I also love the Royals powder blues, which they wear for Sunday games. I do wish they would go full boar with the powder blues and also have powder blue pants, a cry to their old school days in the 70’s and 80’s when they were a powerhouse in the American League and had a legitimate rivalry with the Yankees. I also liked their gold outline jerseys and hats, which they wore primarily in 2016 after they won the 2015 World Series (which most teams do anyways). However, I feel the Royals could get away with the gold more often, just because of the “Royalty” motif of their nickname.

The dark blue road uniforms are the only ones I’m down on and prevent me from going higher than a 9. They just look like Spring Training uniforms, and if they wanted to do a solid blue look, I felt they could’ve gotten a bit more creative with the jersey design. Overall though, I think the Royals uniforms are underrated and don’t get as much love as they deserve, mostly because they always get compared to the Dodgers.

Social Media: 2. My rating: higher.

I admit: the Royals twitter handle is really positive. Like overly positive. I’m pretty sure the Royals twitter is handled by an intern who doesn’t want to piss off Dayton Moore and have to sit through another “anti-porn” seminar, or is a retired mother from Overland Park who has nothing better to do than tweet how much she loves her Royals. I do think though that 2 is pretty unfair. They are pretty responsive to tweets, and they seem pretty active on social media, even if it is a bit vanilla.

If it’s just based on the Royals social media, the rating probably would be around 4. However, I’m giving it a couple of more points (6) due to the affiliates who are just great, especially the Wilmington Blue Rocks, who post GIFs like a madman possessed by Four Loko. Yes, Wilmington’s only the High-A, Carolina League affiliate of the Royals. But that doesn’t stop them from being turned up on Twitter to the 100th degree, which merits a follow from Royals fans who are active on the Twitter-verse. Now if the Royals Twitter can get some help from these guys in Delaware.

Mascot: 8. My rating: higher.

It’s a lion, who is considered “Royalty” of the jungle. He’s dressed in a Royals uniform. The hairs on his head look like a crown. He loves to wave the Royals flag, especially after a victory. And his name is Slugerrr…that’s right, with not one, not two, but THREE R’s. (That’s how we do in Kansas City! F your spelling!)

The Royals have a lion…lions were the stars of “The Lion King,” which kicked ass. Barney sucked. Nobody watched Operation Dumbo Drop. And you think people would go watch a movie called “The Seal King?”

I rest my case. Give Sluggerrr a 10.

Aggregate rating: 4.99. My rating thus far: 7.28 (with 7 categories)

So, my rating of the Royals is about 2.29 higher than THT’s ratings. Now, I didn’t weigh them just yet, so this is simply a raw average for now. If they took my rating, that would put the Royals fifth in between the Dodgers and Rockies. I like Kauffman and the Royals better than both those teams and their ballparks, personally, but I know I am a Royals fan, which colors my view a bit (plus my family cheers for the Giants so that also colors things as well).

Of course, this rating isn’t totally complete. I still have two categories to consider (ballpark experience and accessibility) so this rating could change after tomorrow’s game (which is why I didn’t weigh it; I feel those two categories are weighed so heavily that including the weights with this initial rating would be unfair, not to mention complicated). I do worry about accessibility since I definitely prefer the “mass transit to the ballpark” options of San Francisco and Oakland which Kansas City is devoid of. However, I can tolerate driving and parking if the commute is tolerable, which will be interesting to see during a day game during the week.

Let’s hope Kauffman Stadium and the Royals have a good one in store for Wednesday afternoon.

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